The Garfield Building is a thirteen-story

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style historic structure in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Designed by American architect

Claud Beelman Claud W. Beelman (1884 – January 30, 1963), sometimes known as Claude Beelman, was an American architect who designed many examples of Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco, and Streamline Moderne style buildings. Many of his buildings ...

, construction lasted from 1928 to 1930. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Architecture and history

In addition to the detailed ornamentation around the street-level entry way, the Garfield Building has an art deco lobby. It was a working office building for many years, but has been empty since its sale in 1991. The building has of rentable space for filming or other events. Located just off of South Hill Street at 403 West 8th Street, it is in the downtown Jewelry District, which in recent years, has had a revival, with lofts, artist's work spaces, and new shops, restaurants, and businesses around the Garfield. The main entrance is marked by an elaborate wrought iron entrance canopy above and a

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

sidewalk below. Floral and grapevine patterns decorate the open grillwork above the entrance. The lobby is graced with polished nickel fittings, elegant display cases, and Gothic-style chandeliers in tones of gold and silver. The walls and floors of the lobby are clad in alternating bands of black and purple marble, and the twenty-foot lobby ceiling has a low

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

pattern in plaster. The building was sold in 1991 and since then has been vacant. The ''

Los Angeles Downtown News The ''Los Angeles Downtown News'' is a free weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, serving the Downtown Los Angeles area. The newspaper focuses on general news with an emphasis on real estate and business along with coverage of the arts s ...

'' named the building one of the "Ten Worst Eyesores" of downtown Los Angeles. It has been declared as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 121. In March 2023, the building was sold for $19 million to a Bay Area firm that plans to turn the Garfield into a

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small-capacity Hotel, hotels that provide more personalized service than typical hotels. They typically have fewer than a hundred rooms, and are considered more "trendy" and "intimate", often due to their location in urban ar ...

References

Skyscraper office buildings in Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Office buildings completed in 1930 1930 establishments in California 1930s architecture in the United States Art Deco architecture in California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-NRHP-stub